LegalNewsline | EPA's popularity possibly waning

Dr. Kenneth Green thinks the EPA is redefining its mission to include things far outside of its Congressional mandate to simply protect human health and prevent major ecosystem damage. He is the resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for environmental issues.

He was a designated expert reviewer for two reports by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He believes the EPA is doctrinaire.

"Jackson is an acolyte of Carol Browner," Green said. "I don't think the EPA ever had a more aggressive, more partisan, more environment-uber-alles administrator. Browner, of course, was an acolyte of Gore, whose extreme environmental fixations rendered him little more than a joke among serious people.

"He is a bit like a televangelist for environmentalism now, giving crazy speeches that have no connection to reality for megabucks, and living like a prince while telling others to embrace life as paupers for the sake of the environment."

Green believes that the Jackson administration has continued Browner's policies. These policies have made the EPA uncontrollable and expansionist, he says.

When the EPA uses terms like "sustainability" and "environmental justice," it is asserting its right to do virtually anything it wants to, from educational opportunities to the rich/poor income gap, Green argues.